THE snow on Mount Erciyes sparkles in the early afternoon sun. The skiing on this volcano nearly 4,000 metres high is among the best in Turkey. At the bottom of one slope, a group of secular Turks dance and drink beer outside a new hotel. On the other, alcohol-free, side of the mountain, local families and Arab tourists drink tea. The entrance to a nearby mosque is littered with ski boots; young women in headscarves pelt each other with snowballs.
Down the mountain in Kayseri, the view is considerably bleaker. Not long ago, this industrial city was touted as the birthplace of the Anatolian Tigers, a generation of conservative businessmen who helped create Turkey’s economic boom in the 2000s. Today many of the Tigers are behind bars in the mass arrests that followed an attempted coup last July. The boom is over. Exports from the region have fallen by at least 4% over the past year. Investment has dried up. For the local economy to recover, says Mahmut Hicyilmaz, head of Kayseri’s chamber of commerce, “our industrialists and our investors need a sense of security.”
They do not have...Continue reading
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